I’m a News-Journal subscriber. Some times, many times, in fact, I’ve asked myself why. But there’s a brilliant piece, the kickoff piece of reporting, by Xerxes Wilson, in today’s paper about the inequities of how property taxes are assessed in Delaware. It’s subscriber-only, and worth getting a subscription for. A brief excerpt may whet your appetite:
It is a systemic issue stemming from the fact that Delaware’s three counties haven’t updated the property values used for taxing purposes in some four decades.
It has led to a situation where some residents – often those with the most valuable homes – are taxed pennies on every dollar of their home’s actual worth, while others pay taxes based on closer to the full value of their property.
It produces head-scratching comparisons like this throughout Delaware: From the oceanfront beach mansions to the rural expanses of Sussex County and from northern New Castle County’s Chateau Country down to blighted streets in Wilmington.
These disparities exist among new and old homes, from town to town, neighborhood to neighborhood and in some cases block to block.
Critics say it has created a taxing system that gifts a hidden tax break to the wealthy, a break paid for by the relatively property poor. If you believe one’s tax bill should rise parallel with their property wealth, it is an unfair situation.
The problem is there hasn’t been a comprehensive update of those property valuations in 45 years in Sussex County, 36 years in New Castle County and 33 years for Kent County. Some cities have updated, but county governments and local school districts, which take in the most property taxes, use the outdated figures.
Some of the situations cited in this initial article will make your blood boil. Buy a paper, or get a subscription.
CNN Debate Moderators Used Conservative Talking Points To Frame Debate. I think they were cowed by Trump. You can’t spell ‘coward’ w/o c-o-w. Grow a pair. Of anything.
Nixon And Reagan: Racist Forerunners To Trump. The tapes don’t lie.
Bipartisanship West Virginia-Style: State leaders are pushing for a federal subsidy to build a hyuuge ‘mammoth underground storage facility — big enough to hold the U.S. Capitol complex, or 10 million barrels of the liquid byproducts used in plastics manufacturing’. They’ve been paid off handsomely by the industry. Uh, guess they won’t be banning plastic bags any time soon.
Rural Hospitals Shutting Down In States That Didn’t Accept Obamacare. I’m sorry, but these fucking mouthbreathers who voted for Trump and their local RWNJ’s who hate anything with ‘Obama’ in it have nobody to blame but themselves. Why should I feel sorry for them?
What do you want to talk about?